Why Sushi in Japan is Cheap but Pizza is Expensive
Now that Fall is here, it’s time to enjoy some great Autumn foods, like the wide variety of nabe (hot pot) dishes, or the healthy onyasai (cabbage, onions and thinly sliced pork steamed and eaten over rice with ponzu sauce) that Mrs. J-List loves to make for me. It’s also time to go get some delicious sushi, which I avoid in the summer but heartily embrace once it starts to get cooler. People do eat a lot of sushi in Japan, as you’d expect, and even in landlocked Gunma we still manage to get pretty good sushi options, both the mass-market mawari-zushi conveyor belt sushi as well as proper handmade stuff. One of the basic truths about living in Japan is that while pizza will cost $30-40 as it’s considered an exotic foreign food, sushi can be downright affordable depending on where you eat. Incidentally, if you find yourself getting hungrier in the fall, this is what the Japanese call 食欲の秋 shokuyoku no aki, or Autumn of the Strong Appetite. Rather than fight nature, browse J-List’s newest snack boxes and other goodies during our special Halloween event!
(Incidentally, if you’re looking for the best sushi in Japan, perhaps during a layover, my recommendation is to try a place called Edokko in Narita City, near the airport, which serves sushi so huge, you’ll only need two or three pieces to be full. It’s about a five minute walk from JR Narita Station station.)
The Japanese are great people, but sometimes they do things that can confuse us foreigners. For example, they are extremely respectful of personal space, rarely even hugging family members after a long absence, yet the way to check for a fever is to put your forehead against the sick person’s forehead. Censorship can be confusing, since normal genitalia that all of us have needs to be mosaic’ed out and hidden, but tentacles ripping their victims in half are not seen as a problem. Then there’s the way Japan can be the cleanest and most hygienic people in the world, yet be okay with drinking from communal water cups at Shinto shrines? It’s something every foreigner who visits Japan encounters: beautiful long-handled cups of metal or bamboo which hundreds of people use to drink from each hour. The communal drinking cup thing isn’t limited to picturesque shrines: most public restrooms will have an old plastic cup caked with calcium deposits that’s supposedly for everyone to use when they want to have a drink of water.
Halloween is around the corner, and J-List has some great news! First, we’re having a special Surprise Halloween Contest, which you can enter and get cool free stuff including site coupons! Also, we went and printed these super cute Megumi original stickers, which we will include with every order shipping from Japan or San Diego. The stickers are kawaii, great for sticking on your phone or laptop or car or whatever, but there are only a specific number made, and when they’re gone they’ll be gone forever. So make an order right now and get a spiffy Megumi sticker, and also enjoy 3x J-List Points during the contest period!
